"A
realistic,
hard-boiled peek
at an old Irish, close-knit neighborhood."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A realistic, hard-boiled peek at an old Irish,
close-knit
neighborhood,
in Boston's blue-collar Charlestown section. The
neighborhood is
beginning
to change a bit with "yuppies" moving in; and, the
more dangerous
threat
of blacks possibly moving in. This is upsetting to
these insulated
residents,
fearful of what they don't and can't understand. The
focus of the film
is on Bobby O'Grady (Denis); he is living with his mum
while unemployed
and hanging out with Mousy (Ian) and his cousin from
Dublin, Jason
(Seamus),
and his other bar cohorts. They steal cars for the
local crime boss of
the area, Jackie O (Colm), who tightly controls the
neighborhood with a
menacing friendliness. Jackie O strictly enforces the
code of the
neighborhood,
making sure that no one squeals to the cops. His motto
is: "loyalty is
what counts the most."

What makes this over-used type of storyline for many
recent
films
stand out from the rest is that there is no mistake,
this is the actual
mentality of the neighborhood. The film is seen
through the eyes of
Bobby,
the film's lowlife protagonist. We are stuck with him
and, perhaps, to
a certain extent even commiserate with him, seeing
that he can't escape
from being born into a life of crime even if he has a
good mum and
doesn't
appear to be a really bad sort of a person. He's just
a little wild and
rough in spots. His main problem seems to be that he
has no one around
to point him in the right direction. The one person,
Jason, whom he
could
talk to, he can't. Jason could only express his
anguish that things are
rotten over here and he does not find Bobby to be
receptive to what he
says about altering his behavior. That is the deep
sadness about the
film,
the neighborhood traps everyone into its malaise and
we feel that there
can be no escape.

It all seems so pointless.

When Jackie O starts rubbing out those close to
Bobby just
on the
perception that they might have said something to the
police, Bobby
starts
to do a slow boil. He is unable to think straight
about what he should
do; but, breaking the code of silence is never one of
his options.
Thrown
into the mix is a sexy neighborhood girl who is a bit
of a headcase
herself,
Katy (Famke). She is Jackie O's girl, but is seeing
Bobby on the side.
She is extremely jealous if Bobby goes after any other
girl. This is
evident
in the scene that really summarizes the direction the
story is going;
Bobby
out of frustration at seeing Jackie O and Katy
together at the local
bar
they hang out in, decides to pick up an attractive
yuppie, Annie
(Jeanne)
who came into the bar out of curiosity. This pick up
does not go well,
and he is rejected. Then the most annoying and daring
scene in the film
takes place, as he goes riding with his pals and they
spot a black man
in their neighborhood and they threaten him with
violence. Even though
nothing comes of it, just the threat of overt violence
and the hatred
shown
to this outsider. However this incident becomes
transfixed on our
protagonist,
forewarning us that there is no way out for him.

Monument Ave.works well as a
potently
atmospheric
film that captures the mood of a neighborhood but
cannot penetrate the
souls of the individuals who live there. The boundary
line from
yuppieville
to blue-collarville is Monument Ave., and our boys
can't cross the
boundary
line to respectability; that is, without being
thieves.

There is an emptiness in the lives of these troubled
youngsters.
This is best shown when they have inane conversations
about movie
stars'
tits and their frivolous neighborhood adventures,
while snorting
cocaine
and getting boozed up. Their life seems to be a
tragically wasted one.
Even with all their bravado, they feel and act like
losers. The Irish
cop
Hanlon (Sheen) knows them having grown up in the
"hood," even though he
now lives in the more affluent suburbs. He expects so
little from them,
knowing they are stuck by their code of silence and
the loyalty they
have
for their gangs.

The power of the story has stalled out somewhere in
the
midst of
all the turbulence in the young men' lives, leaving
them with no place
to go after all the cursing and shooting pauses for a
break. As the
message
is simply, that nothing changes here. If you don't go
along with the
way
things are done by the crime bosses, your only other
choice is a
dead-end
job.

Bobby has this anguished look on his face, as he
does what
he has
to do and is as successful as he will ever be in his
lifetime after he
settles his old debts the only way he knows how to.
His friends drink a
toast to him, while the inane bar conversation mixes
in with the bar
music
as the picture fades out on this insightful but
unfulfilling film.